There are hotels where you notice the architecture first. At The Merrion, it is the art that keeps stopping you in your tracks.
That is quite an achievement when the hotel occupies four beautifully restored Georgian townhouses on Upper Merrion Street, directly opposite the Irish Parliament.
But then, this is no ordinary hotel collection.
The Merrion is home to Ireland’s largest private collection of 19th- and 20th-century art, with more than 100 works displayed throughout its public spaces, drawing rooms, hallways and gardens. And it starts before you have even properly checked in.
First Impressions: a hotel you have to look at
There’s a moment, pulling up outside The Merrion, when it takes a beat too long to register that the building in front of you actually is the hotel.
The Georgian terrace façade sits there simply, one section of a whole streetscape of beautiful Georgian terraces, giving nothing away until you’re standing right in front of the door.
The concierge came bounding down the street to collect the luggage before the car had properly stopped, and it was clear immediately that this was going to be one of those places where too much trouble is never enough for them.
Inside, the reception is stunning – beautifully appointed, classic Georgian architecture and styling used in the most sophisticated way.
It sets up everything that follows: a hotel that wears more than two centuries of history. When we arrived, we noted a couple of European Union diplomats asking if there was a room available. We knew we were in good company.
The Art: a museum that happens to have beds
Those who know me, know my obsession with art and architecture, (and top sheets on beds) in particular in hotels.
“This is hurting my eyes” is a one liner the Travel Weekly team like to tease me about, if the aesthetics of a place are a ramshackle. So to arrive in what has an exceptional combination of both, is a dream come true for this weary traveller.
The Merrion’s collection is the real reason to slow down here. Works by some of Ireland’s most important artists are scattered throughout the hotel, including Jack B. Yeats, Paul Henry, Mainie Jellett, Sir John Lavery, Louis le Brocquy and William Leech.
There is something particularly enjoyable about encountering the paintings this way. You aren’t walking into a gallery knowing you are supposed to stand in front of a particular work and contemplate it.
You are walking to breakfast, turning a corner, sitting down for a drink – and suddenly there is a painting that demands your attention. The collection is displayed throughout the hotel rather than confined to one room, making the entire property feel a little like a private museum.
The grand staircase is particularly spectacular, with Martin Mooney’s paintings commissioned specifically for the space, while Jack B. Yeats’ The Hour of Sleep is among the collection’s standout works.
The Merrion has even created an audio art tour for guests, taking visitors through 20 works in the collection.
There is also Art Afternoon Tea, with pastries inspired by paintings hanging throughout the hotel. It is hard to think of many hotels where you could spend an afternoon looking at serious Irish art and then eat a cake based on one of the paintings.
The Rooms: Georgian comfort
The rooms continue the sense of old-world grandeur without becoming stuffy. Ours is beyond spacious.
Light-filled to the extreme, gorgeously appointed and with a super-soft carpet that immediately makes you want to take your shoes off.
There are the expected Georgian touches, but also plenty of little details that make the room feel lived-in rather than staged. And then there are the books. James Joyce is one of the first things that catches the eye, which feels exactly right given where you are.
The bathroom is equally generous, with a seriously luscious bathtub. But it’s the small touches in the room that make it a treat- under my reading glasses, I discovered a Merrion glasses cleaning cloth, in my book, a gorgeous bookmark (replacing my boarding pass pretending to be a bookmark) the loose cables tied up neatly with Velcro.
Location: government buildings and a very lively neighbourhood
Whatever else can be said about Dublin on a first pass through, this pocket of it is lively.
The Merrion sits directly across from Government Buildings – handsome, domed, unmissable from the hotel’s own front steps, and old enough that the honest answer to “how old is that building?”
It was completed in the early 1900s as the Royal College of Science, decades younger than the Georgian houses across the road, but built to look every bit as permanent. Between the National Gallery, Merrion Square and the government precinct, it’s a location that puts history, politics and art within a few minutes’ walk in every direction.
The Cellar Bar: history you can drink in
We almost missed this, and so, when you come here, be sure to find your way downstairs to it.
The Cellar Bar sits in the Main House’s original 18th century wine vaults, all exposed brick, vaulted ceilings and oak panelling, and it trades the drawing rooms’ formality for something looser and more local.
It has its own street entrance on Upper Merrion Street, and a loyal following of Dubliners who treat it as a proper lunchtime and after-work spot rather than a hotel afterthought – a pint of Guiness, a glass from an extensive wine list, live music on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.
The Verdict
The Merrion is a hotel that treats art as seriously as it treats architecture, and the combination of the two – a set of Georgian townhouses saved from the storage-room fate that swallowed so much of the rest of Georgian Dublin, now hung wall to wall with the country’s finest private art collection – makes for something genuinely rare.
It’s an address for travellers who want their five-star stay to double as a gallery visit, in a neighbourhood lively enough that stepping back outside is never a letdown.
The Merrion is a piece of Georgian Dublin brought beautifully back to life – and then filled with art. For anyone who loves hotels with a sense of place, it is difficult to imagine a more compelling address in Dublin.
Six stars.
